Thursday, October 25, 2012

To "I wish I didn't have Aspergers". : @Aspienaut : WIRED differently

To "I wish I didn't have Aspergers". : Aspienaut : WIRED differently

When I was a younger I hadn’t even heard of Aspergers. I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 25. I just knew that I was different. Other people made me feel like I was wrong in some way for just being me. My sensory sensitivities and all the other aspects of having Aspergers made life extra tough. Having Aspergers is extra tough. But the important word in that sentence is EXTRA. By having Aspergers you have something extra. You have innate capacities for noticing things that just pass others by. You have the ability to see the world in amazing and novel ways. Sometimes that extra sensitivity can make life extra hard but sometimes it can make it extra amazing.

If is wasn’t for Aspies and our extra ways of seeing, society would be a different place. Many of the advances in Science, Art, literature might not have happened without us. We are the extra, we have the extra needed to excel and to see further than others. We notice patterns, we see new ways of doing things. We can focus for long periods of time and have the capacity for narrow fields of knowledge and expertise. It is no coincidence that these are just the talents needed to excel in science and is a key part of creativity. Our extra gifts are often a problem when we have to try and fit ourselves into the world of people that don’t think and see the world like we do. They find it hard that we can be different. It makes them uneasy. Be patient with them. It really isn’t their fault that they can’t see the way we do. They struggle to accept difference,and in-turn, to accept us. This is often why we suffer so, its often not our Aspergers as such, its other peoples ignorance. In time you will see just how amazing you are and just what extra things your Aspieness has given you. If you begin to look on the internet for those Aspies that are successful and those Aspies that are historically significant, you will see that we are often at the edge of change and at the front of human understanding. Also remember, If the world has seen further, its because they’ve stood on the shoulders of Aspies.